Inception

Inception

If there's a reason why we've avoided reviewing Christopher Nolan's mind-bending Inception for so long, it's that this is one movie where repeat viewings are more than a luxury - they're essential.

Anyone's first viewing of Inception's labyrinthine plot and Matrix-like  visuals will inevitably involve them struggling to keep up with its  frenetic pace and largely unexplained sci-fi world, in which it's  possible to enter other people's dreams: stealing secrets from the  'projections' of their subconscious mind, and even planting the seeds of  ideas in their heads - the 'inception' of the title. If you manage to  make more than rudimentary sense of Nolan's dense and cryptic vision  then you're a better man than I.

It's only with repeat viewings that Inception's true strengths  begin to emerge from the maze, and now that it's available on dvd  there's no excuse for not revisiting its strange new world. What you'll  find is an unusually detailed and lyrical movie that's as poetic as it  is thrilling, and as emotionally involving as it is groundbreaking. Just  don't expect it to make much sense.

If you're not already familiar with Inception's concept, then  here's a brief rundown - although there's no way that we can represent  its every twist and turn in such a short review. This isn't your average  single-concept Hollywood flick.

Utilizing experimental equipment developed by the military, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio)  is able to enter the dreams of his targets, extracting information from  them as they sleep and selling it on to his clients. Cobb has gathered a  team of professional thieves around him, and between them they have  become the very best at these dream 'extractions'.

Cobb brings with him his own demons, however, and his subconscious is  gradually losing control over them. Unable to return to the US because  he's wanted for his wife's murder, Cobb wants nothing more than to see  his children again - so when he's offered a special job by Mr. Saito  (Ken Watanabe), a high-powered businessman who offers to clear his  record in the States, Cobb has no option but to accept.

The job is an unusual one even for this group of dream-thieves, though,  and it's not long before matters get out of hand. They are employed to  insert an idea into the mind of Saito's rival Robert Fischer Jr.  (Cillian Murphy), who has recently inherited the world's largest power  company - Saito wants him to split up his legacy, and remove his  competition in the process.

The only problem is that 'inception' (the planting of ideas in the  subconscious) is still largely theoretical, and in order to pull it off  the team must go deeper into Fischer's dreams than they ever have  before. At least, that's what they all think - until it emerges that  Cobb has been harboring some secrets of his own.

If you're already lost, then don't worry too much. The whole point of Inception is that it keeps us guessing and re-guessing right up until the closing  minutes - and beyond. If it still doesn't make complete sense after  three or four viewings, then just join the crowd.

Nolan's entire aim seems to be to build an impenetrable maze of ideas,  and he largely succeeds. While it's pretty easy to get a basic grip on  the narrative and the action sequences, Inception is so dense with allusion and imagery that it's wide open to any number of interpretations. Think of it as Lost without the cheesy finale, and you're some way there. While it has an  internal logic that keeps it from flying off the rails, this is still a  movie that asks more questions than it answers, and we're ultimately  left to draw our own conclusions from the jumble of clues on offer.

If this makes it sound like a dry, intellectual exercise, then we've done Nolan a disservice. Inception is also one of the most visually exciting and perfectly-paced movies  you'll see this year, or any other, and it never gets dull, even as it  explores theoretical philosophical questions with barely-disguised glee.  You may not have a handle on what it all means, but there's no doubt  that it's a thrilling ride.

The performances are uniformly excellent too, from DiCaprio's troubled lead to the ominous presence of Marion Cotillard as his dead wife. Cillian Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page and Ken Watanabe all shine too, while Michael Caine and the late Pete Postlethwaite give instantly memorable cameos on the  fringes. It's an ensemble cast than any director would drool over, and  here Nolan makes the most of their various talents.

On occasion Inception still mistakes confusion for depth, and some of the visuals owe a huge debt to The Matrix,  but it's hard to think of a recent blockbuster that has done more to  push the boundaries of cinema, while still entertaining on almost every  level. The only film that trumps it every time is The Dark Knight,  which only serves to make Nolan's achievement all the more remarkable.  Whatever Christopher Nolan does next, you can be certain that we'll be  tuning in.

5/5

Inception

I finally got to see the film of this Summer and as many said and/or wrote the film of the year; Inception. When a movie has such praise and buzz about it always makes me want and or not want to see it. For example, Titanic and Avatar had such a "fucking" buzz about them that I haven't seen any of them  yet. Yes it's true I've seen the first films of David W. Griffith but I  haven't seen the biggest blockbusters of the planet Earth. Phew, I don't  really care about those two but I can say that Griffith is the creator,  the father, the genitor of Cinema, its grammar and the way films have  been shot for more than a hundred years. Unlike James Cameron's  gigantism complexes, I was really looking forward to see Chris Nolan's  last achievement.

I loved all of his films some more, some less but I enjoyed them all, except Following which I haven't seen yet. His two Batman refreshed a style that has been overexploited lately and rebooted the franchise. Insomnia is an interesting, yet complex remake of a Norwegian crime drama. The Prestige suffered from being released back-to-back with The Illusionnist but was far superior than its precedent. And Memento, a successful film on every level, it put Nolan on the map as a more than decent director.

Inception took eight years in the making because studios and producers were  afraid that the public would not follow a film multi layered about  dreams. Well, who has never had dreams in his life? This is an universal  theme that can be used without any boundaries.

Cobb (Leonardo  DiCaprio) is a professionnal who's job is to steal industrial secrets  from the minds of important heads of multinational companies. But his  past is haunting him and he can not return in the USA and see his  children. He accepts one last job that will let him return home to his  family. With long time partner Arthur (Joseph-Gordon Levitt), his  employer Saito (Ken Watanabe), their new architect Ariane (Ellen Page),  impersonator Eames (Tom Hardy), and chimist Yusuf (Dileep Rao) they will  enter in the dreams Saito's rival to make an inception. This last  character is played by the Batman Begins vilain Cillian Murphy. There is another Nolan regular on board, Michael  Caine as the father figure. And finally, Mal, Cobb's wife played by the  always intriguying Marion Cotillard. Since I've seen her in Michael  Mann's Public Enemies I think her face is somewhat always weird and she always has a strange look. Always on the verge of a breakdown...

Well,  with this all-star cast Nolan had the "dream" team any director would  have loved to direct. The strenght of the plot is the many sub-levels of  it and the personal issues of the lead, Cobb, are so well exploited  that it takes us into his deep mind. Every character has an important  role to play in the story and is used for his strenghts. Chris Nolan's  script is very entertaining and we easily agree to fall into his story  of dreams. Nolan's tour de force is to make us believe that it is  possible to enter in the dreams of someone and control his mind. The  whole idea is a gamble, because the principle could have been very  Science-fictionnal and hard to follow but  it's used as a psychologial  thriller. The thriller genre is maybe the easiest genre to get into,  there is always a tension and the film has a goal to achieve. It reads  like that An Objective - The Chase(s) - The Finish Line (Goal/Achievement).  Nolan is playing wth the boundaries of the genres and he is reinventing  them without throwing everything by the window. He refines the limits  of the thriller and mix it up with sci-fi to make his own kind of film; a  Chris Nolan picture.

I've read somewhere that Nolan is the new  Stanley Kubrick. Well, I couldn't disagree more with this affirmation.  In my opinion, I think he is more the Alfred Hitchcock of his  generation, you have to think back, Kubrick's films never have been this  accessible to the public and many disagree and many hated his films.  Hitchcock, always had wide audiences and even if his films were not as  praised by the critics they were appreciated by the crowds filling the  theaters. I'm not saying that Nolan is the new Alfred Hitchcock, there  won't be another Hitchcock, has there won't be another Stanley Kubrick  I'm saying that Nolan is his generation's Hitchcock.

To conclude, so far this year I don't think Inception is the best film of the year. But this is a very close one.

(Read Less...)

Recommendations: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Duel

Last updated: 2010-10-19 10:43:13 by MichaelParent

THE MIND-BENDING JOURNEY OF THE LIFETIME

Inception centers on Dom Cobb, an "extractor", who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, a highly skillful heist-via-dream extracto who fails his only mission while trying to extract confidential documents from Saito (Ken Watanabe). Desperate to return home to meet his children, Cobb accepted a rare opportunity by agreeing on Saito's offer for redemption - that's planting an idea to his competitor Maurice Fischer (Cilian Murphy). Cobb now need to assemble a team with speciality to perform an inception, previously thought to be impossible to do.

Christopher Nolan's Inception should have got nominated for next year's Oscar and the reasons are pretty obvious. Inception is an unique sci-fi thriller with ambiguous explanation after you have watched it. No doubt, Inception is the most talked about movie of the year on the net and on this blog. The movie is simply awesome and mind-blowing, although it may not reach the masterpiece status on the grandest scale, let's say The Dark Knight or Memento. However, you alco cannot deny the fact that Inception reliefs the early promises for been one the most anticipated movie of the summer, and oh boy, it succeed.

Inception lays multiple structured stories perfectly and again making use of the intelligent play of intertwining several timelines into a compact movie. It turns out to be one of the most cerebral movie of our time. The first full hour serves as an exposition and you should absorb as much informations and ideas as possible before the movie turns into a full shift gear of visceral complexity of actions and sci-fi elements on it. Then, could this win the original screenplay? Yes, why not. The script is hefty, compact and precise - the ideas are thrown in slowly and it builds up perfectly as time goes on. While one may sees some parallelity with The Matrix, this is almost completely different. With a runtime of 148 minutes, every piece of details are kept innovative.

Unlike most of Nolan's movie that feels cold in emotion, the character Cobb provides a strong emotional touch throughout. He is a tortured man that has to live in the reality that he could not go back home to see his children while the guilt of causing the death of his wife lingers. DiCaprio has cemented himself as a solid actor with two best performance this year - in Inception and in Shutter Island. The ensemble casting is strong, chemically-bonded and aspiring; but it does not necessary translated into an Oscar winning. No doubt, one of those surprising factors is that how great Michael Caine in the limited two scenes, Tom Hardy, Cilian Murphy, Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon Lewitt are.

From technicality, Inception has a slight advantage of been epic not only due to its complex cerebral story line, but also due to the fact that Hans Zimmer crafted a wonderful mesmerizing musical score. The score is definitely matching the scenes well with a perfect balance of emotion, actions and intensity. The cinematography is excellent and creative while the visual effects are stunning.

In a nutsell, is Inception been a perfect movie? No, but almost. Inception at the current point, deserves Oscar nominations, thanks to its creative and wonderful cinematic experience that does not get old. The complex story may allows you to sink yourself into multiple viewings and the constant evolving ideas pay off well. Inception never fails to relief its high standard of anticipation. It is easy to fall in love with Inception and there's no causative worriness that the film may dampen your spirit. Only words of advise - get yourself prepared, watch for every particular details inside the movie and get your brain fried in a good way. Enough said, Inception is a pure mind-blower entertainment. 

Recommendations: Inception

Have yourself a cup of green tea

Inception review

/</gih3/>/giInception Review</h3>


The first stumbling block for Christopher Nolan? Dream on...

The  Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan brings us a film presenting a  subject nearly all of us can relate to; the world of dreams and the  unparalleled depths our subconscious can take us to whilst keeping our  eyes firmly shut and lying perfectly still.
Going through a stifling period of constant Hollywood re-makes and badly scripted action flicks, Inception is the flower that grew out of a pot of dirt. It's breathtakingly  original, and mixes sci-fi and action together showcasing some amazing  CGI and set pieces.
Corporate spy-for-hire Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) steals  ideas from people's dreams, but then he is hired by a businessmen Saito  (Ken Watanabe)to achieve the impossible: "inception"-planting the idea  in the mind of a target- Robert Fisher (Cillian Murphy), the son of a  energy tycoon. Saito wants Fisher to break up his father's business  empire, though he needs Cobb to plant the idea in his dream first. If he  succeeds, he gets to see his children again, if he fails, he'll be  trapped in dream limbo forever.
The whole film weighs on Leonardo DiCaprio's shoulders, a man who started off opposite Kate Winslet in Titanic and has now pulled off two incredible performances this year, starting with Shutter Island and now Inception.  Some might say he is just 'phoning it in', however if you look closer  you can see a raw intensity and desperation as he plays Mr Cobb,  desperate to be reunited with his children.
But the big idea here is  Dream Invading. At the beginning of the film we are thrown in at the  deep end, watching Cobb midway through Saito's dream and it is rather  hard to get a hold of 'what the hell is going on?', as we are shunted  from one scene to another, with rapid editing and little pause for  explanations. But around the half hour mark, when we are introduced to a  very competent Ellen Page who plays the dream 'architect' Ariadane, the  concept of entering people's dreams and Inception are enthralling. This  is when the story really gets going and we discover Cobb's grief for  his late wife (Marion Cotillard) who keeps appearing in his dreams (and  the people's dreams he invades) as a furious 'projection'. A lot of  mystery surrounds the relationship between Cobb and his late spouse, and  is ultimately the heart of the story.


But  as we are thrown into Cobb's mission we are treated to astounding  visual effects; we watch a city street fall from the sky, various  trickery involving mirrors, and an exploding marketplace executed with  near flawless CGI. Not to mention a zero-gravity fist-fight in a hotel  corridor supported with a fantastic musical score by Hans Zimmer,  literally leaving you watching with your heart in your mouth. On  numerous occasions you'll be asking yourself how did they do that?!
Watching  Cobb and his assembled crew of dream invaders hooking themselves up  with wires to drugged targets and entering their dreams looks cool, but  the process of entering their target's mind is never really explained.  We see them hook themselves up with wires which lead into a silver  suitcase with complicated mechanisms inside, but are never told how its  meant to work. Its a minor niggle in what is otherwise a roller-coaster  ride through pieces of exposition explained by Ariadne, and the concept  of dreams within dreams within dreams, which commands your full  concentration if you are to understand anything that occurs throughout.


Dreams within dreams yield pieces of parallel action. The physics of  each level get destabilized by what's happening above: when Cobb is  dunked into a bath full of water to be woken up, a flash-flood hits him  in his dream world. These sequences are deliriously entertaining to  watch and make up a lot of action, in which the film's third act is  almost entirely made up of as we see Cobb and his 'dream team'  desperately try to complete the Inception.
Once again Christopher  Nolan proves he is a filmmaker of astounding ability (he wrote, produced  and directed this picture), talents that could easily be transferred  into the Bond universe, for Inception is like The Matrix and Casino Royale mixed together. Jaw-dropping set pieces, incredible CGI and  heart-pumping action mixed together with all the endless possibilities a  dream can offer.
This is the hit of the summer. Whether Christopher Nolan decides to turn his attention to the new Superman movie as well as helming Batman 3, no one knows. But it doesn't really matter. Inception proves he can do anything. Sweet dreams.

<big>☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆10/10</big>

(Read Less...)

Recommendations: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

Inception - ***1/2

Review:  It presents a world of endless possibilities.  The idea of a dream and manipulation of a dream that is.  In a dream nothing is real, only our perception that what is happening is real.  If gravity ceases to exist in a dream then we perceive it to be a reality that gravity is failing and just accept it and move on.  If you can harness this ability and change dreams as you see fit the possibilities are endless.  That is the premise of this movie and it is executed to near perfection by the master Christopher Nolan.

I use the term master with complete knowledge of the weight it carries for Nolan has officially solidified himself as a master and possibly the best young director working today.  The idea of dream manipulation and, going even further, dream within a dream manipulation is very complex material and in the hands of a lesser skilled auteur (and actors) would've fallen apart.  However, thankfully for us, it's in the hands of Nolan, DiCaprio, Gordon-Leavitt, Page, Cotillard and the like and they guide us through with great perception of the material and the world they're in.

The plot is a little too complex to discuss efficiently here so I will refrain, but basically it involves people who infiltrate other people's subconscious in order to "extract" needed information through the use of dreams.  The story arc centers around one big job where they need to infiltrate somebody's mind and the assembly of the team needed to pull it off.

Nolan seems to be a big fan of layering his story upon itself multiple times over, thereby creating a web of a story line and only he can unravel, and he takes great joy in doing so.  This is normally accomplished by telling the movie in a non-linear fashion, going forward and backward in the storyline at will (think Memento or Following).  However, introducing the prospect of dreams and dreams within a dream allows him to layer the story and still keep the storytelling linear.

The brilliance of Nolan and this movie does not lie in the plot itself so much as it does in the ability of the director and the actors to take such an "out there" plot and keep it grounded enough to make an extremely compelling film.  A less skilled director would not be able to keep all the layers of this story and still have it be coherent.  Such is the brilliance of Christopher Nolan.

The final job in the movie that covers roughly the last hour and a half of the movie is extremely intense and one of the longest most intense sequences I have ever seen on film.  He manages to bottle the tension of an epic car chase scene and make it last for over an hour.  Quite skilled.  Nolan's ability to interweave all of these "realities" puts the audience in a position where they can sometimes forget what is real and what is a dream.  Then you begin to wonder if you can wake up from this dream or if you even want to. Would you want to come back from the dream into the reality?  Can you come back after seeing this "reality"?  And the ultimate question, once you do come back how to tell the difference between a dream and reality if dreams are reality until we are woken up?  Complex questions indeed and all dealt with with deft skill by Nolan.

In a summer that is seriously lacking with any decent films this comes along and shows up what a master filmmaker can do.  This film shows us why Hollywood can be great and what happens when you allow skilled people the ability to work.  This film is definitely worth your time.

INCEPTION

Inception is the rare summer blockbuster that really makes you think.  It's not the typical popcorn flick that usually comes out this time of year.  This is a relief; it's always nice to have something that strays from the norm.  Leonardo DiCaprio plays a man who specializes in the art of extraction.  He extracts important secrets or ideas from within people's dreams.  He's also the best at what he does.  Soon though, he is given an opportunity to use his skill in a different fashion.  A powerful man makes him a very desirable offer if he can pull off the reverse: planting an idea in someone's mind instead of extracting one.  This is what's referred to as inception.
What he is being offered in return is redemption.  You see, DiCaprio's character is very similar to the one he played in Shutter Island.  He's a man who is spectacular at his job, but plagued by personal problems relating to his family.  His own memories are constantly getting in the way of the task at hand.  For reasons which do relate to his job, he is not allowed back in the U.S. and therefore cannot see his own kids.  He is now offered the opportunity to go back, but only once this new task is completed.
A team is assembled and the plan for inception is underway.  We are then led through an explanation of how entering one's dreams is possible and how the team goes about it.  Ellen Page plays a new recruit to the team.  She is an architect, a job which is necessary in order to design an environment for the dream to take place in.  This is an intricate detail because it allows those who enter the dream to know their way around or where to escape to if necessary.  Since this is her first time doing this, it is through her eyes that we learn the process and such vital steps as how to wake themselves up from the dream if need so.  We also learn that there are multiples levels to dreams.  For example, you can be dreaming while currently in a dream.  It gets pretty complicated from there on out.
The film is really inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming.  This is when you're aware that you're in a dream.  That's the case with the characters in this movie, but they actually have important missions to accomplish while inside them.  The story provides for great visual effects.  There are so many things one can see in a dream; anything is possible.  And the special effects here are superb.  There's a great scene in particular with Joseph Gordon-Levitt fighting men in a hallway with zero gravity.  Unfortunately, the scenes in the latter part of the film can get rather confusing as we see the team go from one dream level to another.  It's sometimes hard to keep up with which level they're in or how many levels they've gone down.  Aside from that cool fighting scene in the hallway, there's also a lot of typical random shootouts with nameless bad guys who just keep popping out of nowhere.  This kind of stuff expands the film to a somewhat unnecessary 2 1/2 hours.  But this is a unique film for the most part and it's refreshing to see a summer blockbuster with a completely original idea.  I strongly recommend it just for the sake of originality and for those like me who are tired of all the sequels and re-makes that have been flooding the theaters.

(Read Less...)

Recommendations: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Se7en , 25th Hour

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-philadelphia/danny-porcaro

Movie Bytes: Inception (2010)

Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt,  Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Michael Caine

What It’s All About:
Dom Cobb is an extractor, a man who enters the dreams of others to  steal information that would otherwise be inaccessible. After the death  of his wife which cost him his family and his nationality, he is offered  a chance to get his life back. The catch is rather than extracting  information, he needs to plant an idea in a corporate target’s mind,  otherwise known as Inception.

The Final Verdict:
Movies very rarely live up to expectations, let alone surpass them  which is the case with Christopher Nolan’s latest film Inception.  Thought provoking, thrilling and utterly gorgeous, Nolan delivers yet  another first class film with the help of DiCaprio as a more than  capable leading man. A film that will keep you thinking long after you  leave the cinema, my only criticism is the weakness in Ellen Page’s  performance which lets the film down somewhat. Otherwise this is the  must see film of 2010.

4/5

Like my review? Please visit my blog to support my work.
http://rebornonline.wordpress.com

Recommendations:

Last updated: 2010-08-01 21:45:44 by hellerphant

Film Review: INCEPTION (2010)

RATING 8/10

BOTTOM LINE: Intellectually and visually engaging, if not emotionally, “Inception” is a fascinating film that demands your attention from the outset with its multi-layered plot and frenetic action.

THE GOOD: Director Christopher Nolan has now cemented his reputation as a world-class filmmaker. “Inception” is his pet project, and he delivers a film that demands you take your brain in with you, but also manages to satisfy those who need their action or sci-fi fix. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, an Extractor who is highly skilled at entering people’s dreams and stealing their secrets. He is offered an opportunity to clear his name for a supposed crime he is accused of in America by Saito (Ken Watanabe), who needs him to implant an idea in to his rival Robert Fisher’s (Cillian Murphy) mind so that he will dissolve his multi-national corporation and thus end their competition. From there, the film turns in to a fascinating exploration of dream versus reality as Cobb and his team carry out their mission. Nolan deserves a huge amount of credit for constructing a film where it is possible to follow exactly what is happening, especially since this film goes to the level of dreams within dreams within dreams. At each turn, you know exactly where you are, as long as you are paying attention. The film has some great action sequences, which are also attenuated by the fact that the dream world is not real and is malleable, exemplified in the scene where we see a city fold in on itself. Nolan was obviously inspired by James Bond, The Matrix and other similar films, but he manages to make something entirely unique here. The cast he has assembled is first rate. “Inception” surely must prove to Hollywood that if they actually had the guts to cut a real director loose on an original concept, then they, and the audience they are serving, can actually come out winners.

THE BAD: It pains me to say anything negative about the film, but despite being intellectually riveting, a feast for the eyes, and an action spectacle, Nolan has crafted a film that feels very clinical. You do not feel too much of what is happening with the characters or their plight. This is more than made up for with intellect and great story-telling however. Another point is that Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a performance that is quite similar to the one he delivered in Shutter Island, but you could also argue that the context within which the characters existed in both films is quite similar given their disconnect from reality.

(Read Less...)

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Inception

Inception

"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger darling." Christopher Nolan has dreamt about as big as you can without actually touching the sun. In a summer full of films where the most original idea is a sequel, Inception is fresh, exciting and the most daring project I've seen in a long time. It challenges the mind, and where most movies are just CGI fodder, Inception has the great honor of being both incredibly entertaining and intellectually stimulating.

What little that could be gleaned from the trailer from this film didn't really tell anyone anything about Inception. Everyone just knew that it was about dreams and about Christopher Nolan's big, sexy directing skills. In the near future (or perhaps the present) the military has invented (of course they did) a device that allows several people to be together in one dream. The obvious benefit for the military is to train soldiers to fight and potentially die, without actually getting harmed. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has one of these devices, although it is never explained why or how, and is employing it for a very different purpose: corporate espionage. Companies hire him to kidnap rival employees, put them under, and discover their secrets. By creating a situation in which the dreamer feels that he is actually in reality, they can get him to admit what he knows or find a place in his mind where he keeps the secrets they want. Cobb than extracts the secrets, gets out of the dream (usually by getting killed within the dream) and makes a profit. But when a job goes bad, the man he had attempted to extract proposes a new idea, inception. He wants Cobb and his team to go into someones mind and plant an idea, specifically the idea to break up his fathers monopoly, because as Cobb said, "When an idea takes hold, it never lets go," but to plant an idea that complex will take dreams within dreams to make the subject truly believe that he had thought of the idea himself. As Cobb's team descends deeper into the subconscious, the line between reality and imagination starts to blur.

It's a lot to swallow, and took me a couple of hours combined with crazy, trippy dreams to really wrap my head around it. Confusing isn't even the beginning of it, but it is so masterfully done that I can forgive it quite easily. The cast itself is about as amazing as it gets, with enough awards between them to start a gold store: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Micheal Caine, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, and Marion Cotilliard. All fantastic and all very talented. DiCaprio's seasoned leadership, Gordon-Levitt's cool composure under fire, and Murphy's emotional journey are just a few examples of great scenes in the movie.

The special effects in Inception may be the very best thing about it, with almost all scenes doing away with the CGI that plagues other films. Nolan has opted for the best that money can buy. Car chases, vans falling off bridges in slow motion, mountaintop buildings exploding in a rain of fire, and the very best fight scene I can think of. Reminiscent of The Matrix, Gordon-Levitt has to fend off subconcious bodyguards in a rotating hall way. As up becomes down he has to manuever his way through the hall and get out alive. That's not even mentioning the moment when the hall stops rotating and loses gravity all together. My jaw was literally open wide enough for someone to throw an apple into.

The most recurring part of Inception, and also the most annoying is Cobb's influence on the dream. His dead wife (Marion Cotilliard) overpowers the regular subjects' subconscious and messes with the dream. His personal battles with the demons inside his head consistently ruin the plan and eventually get really bothersome. At least forty five minutes of footage contribute to this and could have easily been used to help explain the plot better. It was like watching the dream sequences of Shutter Island again.

The plot has a couple of holes in it that can drag the movie down a bit. Like, why was Ellen Page really necessary? How did Saito (Ken Watanabe) skip a dream? and how did Cobb get there? Why did the architect create a moutaintop retreat and then plant their starting point about 7 miles away? If all it takes to jump back to the previous dream is a sudden change in gravity, why didn't they jump back all those times they had incredible falls? and why is Joseph Gordon-Levitt so good looking?

At two and a half hours, Inception is a long one, but I didn't once think about it, my attention was gripped from beginning to end. It took me a long time to figure out how I was going to rate Inception. I decided that in the end I can forgive all of its flaws specifically because it is the most original movie I will see this year and I am expecting multiple awards and honors to descend on this superb film. Christopher Nolan wasn't afraid to dream big.

3 and a half out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell

Spoiler alert! do not read on!
for those who have seen the movie, I like to think that in the end, he did make it back home.

(Read Less...)

A mind-bending taut action-thriller-drama

Inception was as good as the reviews said although I wouldn’t call it my best movie of 2010. I should think that I was impacted by some of the other movies that I’ve caught this year. Christopher Nolan does a great job with this gripping actionesque thriller that does a real mind-job on viewers with its metaphysical concept on what reality is.

Inception is equal parts thriller, action and drama all rolled into one. Leonardo DiCaprio does another bang-up job in the lead role here and the way Nolan ties the tense moments is brilliant just because of the movie’s concept of dreams within dreams. Ellen Page deserves a worthy mention and it’s great seeing Nolan pulling from his regular pool of actors with Ken Watanabe & Michael Caine (in a cameo) on board.

Really good stuff and definitely worth picking up when it comes on Blu-Ray or DVD. In this case I’ll most likely pick it up on DVD cos’ I don’t think it’ll justify a hi-res disc purchase. I give Inception a 4 out of 5.

For more reviews and other stuff check out my blog.

Inception

Plot: In a world where the technology exists to enter people’s dreams, Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has stolen ideas in people’s minds for years.  Saito (Ken Watanabe), a successful business tycoon hires Cobb and his team for a very different kind of dream invasion known as Inception, where they will attempt to plant an idea into the head of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) the owner of Saito’s rival company.

The best way to describe Inception is that it’s Ocean’s 11 on steroids.  The movie kicks ass.  There is no other way to put it.  Spearheaded by the best actor working in entertainment today (Leonardo DiCaprio) and several other fantastic performances, this team of dream invaders takes us on a ride that can only be described as OMG.  This is a movie experience unlike anything ever tried before.  Inception is like a house of cards.  It’s so ambitious and daring that all signs point to the house crumbling by the end, but what makes it so damn good is that the 9 story house of cards stays in tact once the end credits come on.  As great as the acting is, the man who deserves most of the credit is the best director working in film today; Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento).

For a movie about mind invasion, I can only imagine what it would have been like to be inside Christopher Nolan’s mind while he constructed this masterpiece.  And the organization is the movie’s greatest strength.  Everything is so complicated and mind bending, but if you are a good movie-goer and pay attention, you will find he doesn’t leave many holes.  What’s so fun about watching Inception play out is that the audience’s focus is rewarded as the movie goes on.  As Cobb and his team go deeper into the human mind, it gets crazier.  Watching the progression play out towards the climax is beautiful.  If you stick with it, you get more and more excited as the story plays out. There is nothing more I can say about Nolan.  This is a perfectly directed film.

What’s equal to the directing is the acting.  Leonardo DiCaprio is perfect as always.  My favorite scenes with him are just his facial expressions as he looks ravaged after doing this for so many years.  His face says it all.  He looks like he just sat through a movie that is 50 times more complicated than Inception.  My other favorite performance is Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Cobb’s right hand man.  This guy truly elevated the character.  Arthur is written kind of weak, but Levitt’s performance really propels him as not only one of the more likable characters, but a bad ass one at that.  I found myself rooting for him the most.  I hope to see this guy in a lot more movies. 

Ellen Page as Ariadne, the rookie in Cobb’s crew, was perfect casting.  Ariadne, like the audience, is learning about all this crazy crap for the first time.  We see a lot of the movie through her perspective, so it’s crucial this character be very likable.  It doesn’t get more likable than Ellen Page.  Rounding out the cast is Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, and Cillian Murphy.  They are all excellent.  Unfortunately Marion Cotillard as Cobb’s wife was a little disappointing.  She carries a lot of weight in the film, but aside from a couple solid scenes, her performance wasn’t very memorable compared to the others.

The storyline involving Cobb and his wife takes a little while to get into, but much like everything else in this film, it pays off big time.  One of the weaknesses of Inception though is that it does move a bit slow.  As tension filled and action packed as a lot of these scenes are, it does take a while for them to play out.  There is a long sequence in a snowy setting that drags on for a while making it at times just another run of the mill action flick, which is inconsistent with the rest of the movie.

I didn’t mind this though because every setting and visual in this film is downright gorgeous to watch.  And what makes Inception so much better in the visual department as opposed to something like Avatar is they are constantly changing and doing different things with the effects and settings.  Avatar is just a bunch of really good close-up shots of multi-colored trees and facial expressions.  Inception has visuals that destroy those lame Navi’s that I wouldn’t dare give any of them away.  One thing I will say is that I witnessed one of the greatest fighting sequences in the history of movies. 

All in all, Inception does things that movies rarely do.  It reaches for perfection with new ideas and great ambition and nearly achieves them where as so many films try and do something different and bold but fail horribly.  Christopher Nolan movies will now be similar to going to see a James Cameron movie in that they will be an event.  I can’t wait to see what other tricks this guy has up his sleeve. 

Rating: 9 out of 10 (OMG)

(Read Less...)

Inception - ***1/2

Review:  It presents a world of endless possibilities.  The idea of a dream and manipulation of a dream that is.  In a dream nothing is real, only our perception that what is happening is real.  If gravity ceases to exist in a dream then we perceive it to be a reality that gravity is failing and just accept it and move on.  If you can harness this ability and change dreams as you see fit the possibilities are endless.  That is the premise of this movie and it is executed to near perfection by the master Christopher Nolan. 

I use the term master with complete knowledge of the weight it carries for Nolan has officially solidified himself as a master and possibly the best young director working today.  The idea of dream manipulation and, going even further, dream within a dream manipulation is very complex material and in the hands of a lesser skilled auteur (and actors) would've fallen apart.  However, thankfully for us, it's in the hands of Nolan, DiCaprio, Gordon-Leavitt, Page, Cotillard and the like and they guide us through with great perception of the material and the world they're in.

The plot is a little too complex to discuss efficiently here so I will refrain, but basically it involves people who infiltrate other people's subconscious in order to "extract" needed information through the use of dreams.  The story arc centers around one big job where they need to infiltrate somebody's mind and the assembly of the team needed to pull it off. 

Nolan seems to be a big fan of layering his story upon itself multiple times over, thereby creating a web of a story line and only he can unravel, and he takes great joy in doing so.  This is normally accomplished by telling the movie in a non-linear fashion, going forward and backward in the storyline at will (think Memento or Following).  However, introducing the prospect of dreams and dreams within a dream allows him to layer the story and still keep the storytelling linear. 

The brilliance of Nolan and this movie does not lie in the plot itself so much as it does in the ability of the director and the actors to take such an "out there" plot and keep it grounded enough to make an extremely compelling film.  A less skilled director would not be able to keep all the layers of this story and still have it be coherent.  Such is the brilliance of Christopher Nolan.

The final job in the movie that covers roughly the last hour and a half of the movie is extremely intense and one of the longest most intense sequences I have ever seen on film.  He manages to bottle the tension of an epic car chase scene and make it last for over an hour.  Quite skilled.  Nolan's ability to interweave all of these "realities" puts the audience in a position where they can sometimes forget what is real and what is a dream.  Then you begin to wonder if you can wake up from this dream or if you even want to. Would you want to come back from the dream into the reality?  Can you come back after seeing this "reality"?  And the ultimate question, once you do come back how to tell the difference between a dream and reality if dreams are reality until we are woken up?  Complex questions indeed and all dealt with with deft skill by Nolan.

In a summer that is seriously lacking with any decent films this comes along and shows up what a master filmmaker can do.  This film shows us why Hollywood can be great and what happens when you allow skilled people the ability to work.  This film is definitely worth your time.

Inception- Christopher Nolan's Puzzle into the Possibilties of Dreams is Intriguing to the Mind but Never the Heart

Dreams have always had a place in the cinema for they deal with the limitless imagination and how they can ignite our deepest desires and horrors. Fellini mastered the subjective mind in his masterpiece 8 ½, while the exploration of the tone of a dream  changing from elated joy to nightmarish doom was expertly designed in Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece Brazil. Now the modern auteur of confusion and complexity, Christopher Nolan, takes a leap into the power of the imagination and tries to organize it into one of the most complexly layered puzzles the movies have ever seen. To mean this is an unabashed compliment is misleading because Nolan’s film Inception is about as interesting and mind boggling as a really good puzzle but is just as emotionless as one. The film is designed to perfection with a dream narrative that expertly weaves varying places of time and space, but as the film gets deeper into the power of the imagination we also end up getting more distant from the characters that we never really get to know at all. Inception is very much a large scale blockbuster full of gun fights, car chases, and special effects that manipulate direction and time and displays the sheer ambition Nolan can possess at creating this gargantuan project. Though the film as a whole feels a bit callous and causes some minor anxiety due to the prolonged length of the movie there is no doubting Christopher Nolan’s rare ability to pull off such an epically scaled film in an incredibly convincing way.
            While the story of Inception lays its foundation on a never explored energy war between two companies it can sort of be forgiven due to the energy and originality it possesses in its main attraction of going into people’s minds. The protagonist Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an international convict, is an expert at stealing ideas and memories from the people he is randomly hired to perform such a task, which is known as extraction. But Cobb is blackmailed into the opportunity of acquiring his amnesty for his alleged crimes back in America by a wealthy energy company owner Saito (Ken Watanabe) who wants him to perform a seemingly impossible “inception.” Inception is the opposite of extraction, which is putting an idea into a subject so it flourishes and becomes their own rather than taking the idea out of their mind. With a team of varying professionals, including a college student (Ellen Page), Cobb must infiltrate the mind of a business man named Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) whom he must put the idea of breaking up the family business so that Saito can capture the entire market for himself. Again the monopolistic intentions of Saito are never really explored nor do they really have to be considering the thrill and visual freshness that Nolan’s Inception is able to put on the screen. Of course, as the team gets deeper into the subconscious of their subject the task gets trickier and more dangerous due to Cobb’s mental instability. Unfortunately one of the more negative aspects of the narrative is the lack of getting into any of the character’s emotions or subjectivity. While Cobb’s subjectivity is a spectacle that makes the dream world more dangerous it isn’t an aspect of the film that becomes an emotional or relatable element for the audience to get involved in. Instead the film sticks to being a highly complex puzzle, with interjections of pure action or visual spectacles, which showcases Nolan’s ingenuity as a technical filmmaker but not as a storyteller.
            Exploring dreams and the imagination can make for a subject matter that is practically limitless but Nolan sets out to give himself some rules and regulations to follow through the puzzle that is Inception’s script. As we learn more about these different rules, usually coming out of nowhere to explain itself for plot convenience, it takes a moment for the explanation to easily mesh with the story as it’s still going at full force. Some people will definitely find the film a bit convoluted but that doesn’t mean Nolan doesn’t do a good job at keeping you balanced and knowing where you are exactly in which dream. The idea of a dream within a dream makes for some thrilling visual sequences, including the manipulation of gravity, the slowing down of time, and even the random placements of objects such as a train rolling on a street in Los Angeles. Nolan certainly knows how to make things exciting and when dealing with the randomness of the imagination there is no way for him to disappoint. But when more of the plot specifics are explained it seems the characters become mere pieces on this intriguing chess board with only a particular role to play rather than becoming a unique individual in the process. There is always a distance for the audience and the characters in Inception and that is really its most damaging characteristic at being a near perfect blockbuster film. This is probably due to the vast complexity in putting this Rubik’s cube of a film together in order to make sense, and the narrative’s multiple layers do come together quite nicely even if the emotion and subjectivity get left behind.
            Despite the characters just being objects to help Nolan explore his ambitious cinematic puzzle the cast does a good job at keeping things interesting. Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t necessarily at his best, but his unique presence in places that are unfamiliar to us aids Nolan’s vision in a way that might not have been as successful with another lead. The crew, consisting of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dileep Rao, and Tom Hardy, all possess a great deal of personality that aid with some deviations into humor and a bit of egotistical struggle amongst themselves. Marion Cotillard plays the haunting presence of Cobb’s dead wife and gets increasingly dysfunctional and problematic the deeper the dreams are able to go. Having a cast who can make such fantastic scenarios believable is quintessential to the success of this ambitious film, and luckily the familiar faces and fresh ones make it a consistent and steady experience. As stated before they are all practically chess pieces created for a specific purpose for Nolan’s puzzle game and for the most part they make it interesting. What would have made it better is if we ventured into more of the character’s intentions and perhaps their own subjectivity could influence the dreams allowing imaginations clash with each other. But this would have probably made the film a great deal longer and perhaps inevitably deviate from Nolan’s intended purpose.
            Christopher Nolan’s Inception is really about a technical exercise in how special effects can compliment a heavily structured script. The inventiveness of the fighting sequences with twisting angles as well as the demolition of buildings representing the fragmentation of a dream all make for some great complimentary visuals to Nolan’s extremely complicated narrative. But when a script gets too complicated, and the focus turns to the possibilities of visuals rather than character, than sometimes the point of why we follow certain characters begins to diminish. Watching Nolan’s Inception is a thrilling experience, with mind exercising twists and turns that demand the audience’s attention. However, a puzzle being a mind exercise can be an intriguing experience, but it certainly isn’t an emotional one.

(Read Less...)

Recommendations: Red Riding, Fish Tank , Mystery Team

Inception - A cinematic Rubik's Cube crossed with The Matrix and M.C.Escher

In the wonderful world of summer movies you will generally get a vast assortment of visual bonbons constructed from video games, cartoon characters, and comic books, along with new sequels to previously viewed originals, or even new visions of past originals. In short, we see stuff we've seen before. But when an original idea pops up in the form of a new movie, we must all take notice.

Christopher Nolan's brand new movie Inception which opened today, is indeed a new idea in film making and story telling. We've not really seen too many movies about dreams. Yes, we've seen many movies where there's something going on, and it's frightening, or it is intense, and then, someone awakens ... and we realize that what we had just seen... was only a dream. That dream was a bit of deceptive gamesmanship by the screenwriter and director to either thrill us or shock us. We are relieved when we become aware that what we had just seen wasn't reality.

Inception turns that concept inside out. Here, the film's premise is that the dream state is where we want to be. It is where the action happens, and it is where all the peril and danger and thrills occur. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb. He calls himself a security expert of a very specialized kind - subconscious security. He's an extractor. This means he enters your dreams to find your secrets which he then steals.

Cobb tells us:

What's the most resilient parasite? An Idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules. Which is why I have to steal it.



He's a thief for hire, and most of his work is what you might call corporate espionage. As we meet him, he discussing his work with the Japanese billionaire Saito, who is played by Ken Watanabe. Saito and Cobb duel intellectually, until ultimately we learn that Saito wants Cobb to plant an idea into someone's brain, in such a way, that this person will believe that it was his own idea.

Saito reasons, If you can break into someone's dreams to steal an idea, why can't you get in to a dream to plant an idea?

Of course the planting or creation of an idea is what is known as Inception.

What Nolan has done, is to create the Rubik's Cube of a movie. When you work Rubik's cube you are an external force whose job it is to perfectly align the surface. Inception has you as a witness to Cobb's crew doing their thing inside of the cube.

Only they don't call it a cube. Instead think of it as a straightforward simple dream, or a dream within the dream, or at its most serious, most dangerous, and most difficult - a dream within a dream within a dream.



Admittedly the special effects are fabulous. Cities can fold over on themselves, gravity can be suspended, time can be stretched wherein seconds become minutes, and minutes become hours, and so on. The reality within the dreams has plenty of visual reality like bullets, explosions, and car chases, but the they've blurred the realities to an extent that often we aren't sure if the characters on screen are dreaming or what we watch them doing is their reality. And that is the fun of the experience that you get in Inception.

Another way to describe this film is to compare it to The Matrix. Only without the hardwiring. Cobb isn't Neo, and he isn't fighting to save the world from machines. Instead think of Cobb as a thief, and this picture is something of a heist movie.



You will find that the story is sometimes hard to follow. You will be disoriented at times, and often confused about what is actually going on, and this is the intention. But when you are watching and absorbing (back on your cinematic feet so to speak) the performances by DiCaprio and his team - think of a Mission Impossible team of experts - are compelling. I especially liked Ellen Page as Ariadne, the team's dream architect, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Cobb's long-time partner who is skilled in sleight-of-hand as well as munitions.



Michael Caine and Pete Postlethwaite appear in extended cameos. Watanabe, who everyone loved in The Last Samurai, is the corporate billionaire who hires Cobb and his team, and then insists on joing them on the job. He was okay, but strictly speaking he isn't a standout.



Ocar winner Marion Cotillard appears as Mal, Cobb's former wife.  Mal shows up only in Cobb's dreams. In effect, we might as well call her Mal-function as she is both an impediment as well as an inspiration to Cobb. He wants to re-unite with his family, and to do so, he must succeed on the mission. Cotillard is more than simple window-dressing, but on the other hand, her role is somewhat intrusive.

My final thoughts are to direct you to the film's tagline which reads ...

Your mind is the scene of the crime.  

Those words will resonate much more effectively for you once you have seen the movie. 

Recommendations: Chak De! India

Last updated: 2010-07-18 11:59:56 by JustMeMike

Inception

Inception is the latest film from writer Director Chris Nolan, now well known for re-launching the Batman franchise with great success.  The story features Leonardo DiCaprio as the leader of a team who infiltrates people’s dreams in order to secure their deepest secrets.
 
Comparisons have already been made to The Matrix, though viewers should not go to theaters expecting remotely the same experience. Inception is much more an action/sci-fi/drama than a straight up action/sci-fi flick.
 
The story is fascinating and only leaves you in the dark for the first 20 minutes or so. (Possibly just a little too long.) Performances are solid, though no one stands out. Still, the movie finds a way to make you care about even incidental characters.
 
Though DiCaprio is the lead, the story follows an ensemble cast of interesting characters, and by the end of the movie’s two and a half hour runtime, you feel as though you’ve experienced an epic story with a lot of things happening.
 
Those interested in concept driven sci-fi will find plenty to think about as the “rules” of the dream world are unraveled and depended on for the story’s progression and moments of tension. As unlikely as this story is, the framework provided for it gives it a sense of realism. But this is no brainy, sterile, cerebral sci-fi affair. There is plenty of intensity and action to keep the average viewer involved.
 
One scene in the movie has an antagonist (of sorts) ask DiCaprio what he is feeling as a way to determine what is real. It is interesting that the perceptive viewer can pick up from the script that “feeling” is not a determiner of what is real. The stronger theme is about dealing with reality, rather than allowing yourself to be ruled by your emotions. This theme isn’t dealt with in a way that provokes conversation, but it’s certainly there.
 
I should point out that although the trailers for this movie are filled with special effects shots, the movie itself has a much smaller percentage of them. The realistic feel of the film may actually be a letdown to geeks looking for a more mind-bending movie. But this is a great film that many will enjoy, including the geek.
 
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout.
 
Quality: 9.0/10
 
Relevance: 7.0/10
 
www.spiritblade.net/paeter
www.spiritblade.net/podcast
 
 

(Read Less...)

&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritblade.net/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.spiritblade.net/images/SB_button_banner.gif &quot; width=&quot;302&quot; height=&quot;77